I've been building rules for balanced and non-time consuming rules for automatic fire, designed for use with the 2005 rules. I've done extensive playtesting of several methods, had forum members vote on an "official unnoficial" rule for it, and use it in my battles. At first the rules someone may come up with appear fine, but I've done so much testing with automatic fire rules that I can smell not-fun rules from a mile away.

EDIT: Crap, I didn't even see this!

birdman wrote:Yes, i do happen to think that's balanced. The reason? First off, that's a bonus roll, and while it does happen, 11 or more shots aren't going to come rattling off every single turn.Secondly, this would actually speed up gameplay. I'm not talking about multiplying the number of shots fired, i'm talking about multiplying the number of hits made. Realistically, when a unit with an automatic weapon fires at another unit, it will hit, eventually. My method merely distributes a realistic number of hits between units. If the players cooperated by rolling damage and armor at the same time, my method speeds things up considerably. I've playtested this principle, and it works.

Again, some of my older methods for automatic fire had rules a lot like this. What ends up happening is that (using your example) the commando would deal 11d6+11 damage in a single turn (also, I'm assuming it's a long-range rifle). That's enough damage to tear a tank to shreds. Quite frankly, that's way more damage dealt than is ever fun. I found this out the hard way in a brikwar like this where 50% of an army was decimated by a Minigun using rules just like this.

Last edited by IVhorseman on Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, ya see, IV, the thing is, this wouldn't be happening. if that rifle had a damage of 1d6, you're not adding anything to that damage. It's just extra shots, not bonus damage.
Oh, btw, i was under the impression that unless there was a lot of shots and not enough targets, everything gets hit once and only once. If there were too many shots, they can be reapplied to targets, but you can't put 5 shots on one target and one on the other, all the shots have to be as equal as possible.
Oh, and no, i am not harvey.

Although there's still a gaping hole here: what constitutes what "area" can be targeted? as in, what's stopping me from saying "My target area is everyone on the field", and just shooting guys who are at ridiculous angles apart from each other? That's what I've implemented my finger-cone system for.

IVhorseman wrote:ohhhh okay okay I kindof see where you're going with this.

Although there's still a gaping hole here: what constitutes what "area" can be targeted? as in, what's stopping me from saying "My target area is everyone on the field", and just shooting guys who are at ridiculous angles apart from each other? That's what I've implemented my finger-cone system for.

How about a maximum of 6 targets, who all have to be within 2" of one other target (think WH40k squad coherency) so you can form a chain.

dude fingercones are just as simple as having 2 shots, and for anyone who thinks a fingercone is too small i have some steps for you:
1) go to a store
2) walk to the school supply aisle
3) pick up a protracter
4) have a checkout person ring it up
5)pay for it
6) use the arch of the protracter to determine the area a automatic firearm will rain down lead.

but itd e easier with fingercones or double shots.

but you will not to use a simple method like finger cones, for a dumbass reason and whine about it all day.

because your probably the kind of person who is never satisfied.

Glory be to the Bomb, and to the Holy Fallout. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end. May the Blessings of the Bomb Almighty, and the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout, descend upon us all. This day and forever more. Amen!

Here is list of how autofire could be handled with for bursts.
1: Select your target
2: Don't aim at all, you just fire into the right direction
3: Roll your attacker's skill
4: Distribute damage
5: ???
6: PROFIT!!

another reason i like my idea is it sorta compensates for the fact that more bullets isn't completely better

a)it has a sh*& load of recoil
b)buys see a line almost like a sword passing by and killing people they can geuss thatstanding is bad and duck (hard to depress while firing) by only being able to shoot 2 guys it allows for the fact the weapon is "automatic" and means that you don't have to use those damn meat sacks!

your 2 shot thing does account for more reasoning as to all those variables but we want action movie carnage not reasonable outcomes.

Glory be to the Bomb, and to the Holy Fallout. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end. May the Blessings of the Bomb Almighty, and the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout, descend upon us all. This day and forever more. Amen!

exactly. Now my system, for example, eliminates the need for huge UR's on automatic weapons as seen in the 2001 rules. take a UR of 2 or 3 and you already have to roll a 5 or 6 to get 3 shots. Therefore, my system is less unbalancing than a '2 shots every single time' rule. Perhaps there is a minimum of one shot fired, no matter how low you roll against the UR? unless it's a crit fail, of course.